318 MAX fuel economy builds?

I had a '82 5th Avenue about 20 years ago that had lean burn and a 2bbl I rebuilt. 25 mpg on the highway wasDid

Well you kind of do you got a head and cam range picked out which will make certain amount of hp in a narrow ish range.

No I don't think it will negatively affect gas mileage a may have a slight increase don't know if it would be noticeable amount though eg 1-2 mpg increase.

My point is say you end up making 300-325hp, right now your comparing ported 920 to stock J's by why not port the J's which will need less cam to make the 300-325hp which to me be more streetable and better on gas since a cam has greater effect on mileage or with same cam you'd have more power with similar mileage.

But since this a temp engine and you already got a decent set of 920 I see nothing wrong with you going that way. Plus I feel mileage is hard to gain but easily lost, so as long you don't do anything to overly kill fuel mileage these builds should come out with similar results give or take a few mpg.
I only compared the two heads because I see they can get the same flow. But I believe the smaller port will dramatically improve atomization at 1500 rpm. I may be wrong and this is the test. But if they flow the same or similar at full lift and 25% faster than with the J heads at low rpm I'm hypothesizing better mileage and low rpm torque. 200 cfm on the intake at .450 to .500 would be plenty and I see they can get near 225. If my car was FI I would go with the J head. But beings as I require the air speed to carry the fuel into the cylinder I'm hoping these work better for my application. I picked the cam based on the ability to use Rhoads lifters and get the cam near a factory 2 barrel cam below 1500 rpm and close to a 340 mag cam fully pumped up. So in essence I'll be running a factory 360 2 barrel cam for the first 1800 rpm. This along with the small ports I'm hoping create a MPG friendly engine that has more than a 360 2 barrel engine when needed. Not trying to out run a 340 hp or anything pumped up. YET!!